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Fake geek girls is a snarl word developed by men with limited social skills used to describe women who partake in geek culture but are deemed sexually inaccessible to the average male geek; rather than accept that cute girls can geek as well as, if not better than, the basement-dwelling crowd, some geeks assume that these women are faking their geek cred in order to gain status, money or attention. Why these girls need the attention of self described basement dwellers is never explained by them by the way.

The conventional wisdom is that There Are No Girls On The Internet, and there's a strong perception (especially among straight white male gamers) that the core demographic of geekdom is straight white males who work in computing. In practice, of course, geekdom covers a wide swath of artistic and scientific endeavors—computers, gaming, science, music, theatre, fashion, literature, film, photography—and although women aren't always as recognized (and don't always have the same specific interests) as men, there are plenty of geek girls out there.

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There's been no shortage of attempts to minimize the contributions of women in the STEM fields; although people like Marie Curie and Grace Murray Hopper can't really be ignored, the ENIAC programmers (almost all women, and almost all anonymous, with Mauchly and Eckert getting most of the credit) were treated as little more than secretaries, and the contributions of people like Hedy Lamarr and Danica McKellar are only recognized because of their much wider fame as actresses. When Miss USA 2011 Alyssa Campanella described herself as a geek (and she does have significant artistic geek cred as a former high school theater nerd[1]), the backlash was muted but significant.

Why the hell would a female scantily-clad cosplayer spend her time, money, and effort creating an outfit merely to entice men when she could just as easily entice them in a short skirt and a low cut top?

It really shows the fundamental misogyny of some men: they simply cannot fathom the fact that not everything that women do is about them.

As for money, going to cons and engaging in geeky hobbies requires disposable income. Being a geek siphons money, and unless you work as a cosplay model or are some kind of Internet celebrity, which the vast majority of geek girls aren't, you aren't going to make a dime.

In regards to attention, do you really think that the man with an elaborate cosplay outfit isn't enjoying the attention he receives?

But how dare women do the same. How dare they.

There is also a fundamental irony to the fact that most men who call out female cosplayers who wear revealing outfits tend to be straight. In other words, they like women's bodies, but they don't like the women who own the bodies to actually feel confident in themselves. They'll eagerly consume media where they look at sexy women, but the idea that sexy women might look back at them and/or have agency of their own is enraging and terrifying.